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Share your Christmas expectations vs reality with NOW TV - chance to win £300 NOW CLOSED

271 replies

AnnMumsnet · 04/12/2017 14:27

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Share your Christmas expectations vs reality with NOW TV - chance to win £300 NOW CLOSED
OP posts:
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BlueTablecloth · 05/12/2017 13:54

The time, after christmas lunch, we went one motorway junction to go visit family, unfortunately that was the section of motorway which was shut for 2 hours... On arrival I shouted 'merry christmas i need a wee' and legged it upstairs

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haveacupoftea · 05/12/2017 14:58

Expectation: sense of magical wonder
Reality: sense of boredom and disappointment

Repeat yearly

Merry Christmas

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LaLaLanded · 05/12/2017 15:29

Expectation: Father Christmas would be a giant, jolly man with a beard like clouds.

Reality: my 70-year-old grandmother dressed in a red nightie, with a white handkerchief tied around the bottom half of her face.

The woman never has and never will look anything like Father Christmas. My cousins and I have never forgotten it. It was 19 years ago.

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PugwallsSummer · 05/12/2017 16:40

Expectation: visiting quaint tree farm in matching Christmas jumpers, children rapturous at choosing the perfect tree, taking it home to decorate all together while listening to Christmas music and eating mince pies. Afterwards, Smugly sitting around a lit fire with steaming mugs of hot chocolate full of festive cheer and pride in beautifully decorated tree.

Reality: arriving at tree farm, realise forgot children's coats. Wrap small children in adult's puffa jackets (many sympathetic looks for the family that can't afford to clothe their children) Schlep round in the cold, forced jollity all round, kids bored and cold within nano-seconds, none of trees even remotely symmetrical (yes, my expectations a high), finally settle on a below-par tree costing £££ because can't cope with the cold for a second longer. Tree farm don't accept cards, drive to nearest town to get cash, both children tantrumming in back of car. Finally collect disappointing tree, get it home (leaving trails of pine needles throughout house), untangle reams of lights, argue over posture of tree (it WAS wonky), children bored - one on iPad other watching TV, realise all tree decorations are a bit crap but put them up anyway - vowing yet again to invest in some nicer ones this year - realise forgot to put music on and didn't buy any mince pies. Finally flop down on sofa mentally starting a countdown until bloody tree can be disposed of. And it's STILL wonky.

'Tis the season to be merry! 🎄🙄

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PugwallsSummer · 05/12/2017 16:41

LaLaLanded your Grandma sounds ace!

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FoofFighter · 05/12/2017 16:41

Expectation:
Waking up with dc on Christmas morning after a lovely cosy eve, to snow and everything they want.

Reality: having to take it in turns alternating Christmas with the ex. Just having nowtv the tv and a bottle of baileys for company.

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FawnDrench · 05/12/2017 16:50

Expectation - a delicious 4-course Xmas meal advertised as "home cooked" - with all the trimmings and lots of "extras"....

The reality - pre-cooked, probably pre-frozen plates of tasteless stodge with a thimbleful of watery gravy to accompany the so-called turkey, costing £65 per person, with the "extras" consisting of one dated, tired-looking cracker per couple which didn't even contain a joke to lighten the mood.
Just dreadful.

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asuwere · 05/12/2017 17:43

Coca cola truck came to out town 2 years ago, I was quite excited.
Expectation: a magical wonderland, the truck opening to display an enchanting light show (as per their description)
Reality: 90mins standing in a queue in freezing cold, a closed truck, a single Christmas tree and allowed to take photo standing next to truck cab!

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Jaderice21 · 05/12/2017 17:54

expectations is spending time with kiddies reality , running round like a headless chicken trying to make everything perfect when in reality ur a zombie mum whos stuck in the kitchen cooking and fighting annoying christmas shoppers who get in the way when your in a rush to get back home in time for the school run so u can hide the presants

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WonderLime · 05/12/2017 18:31

Last year I hosted my first proper Christmas for family as we were finally living in a house with space. I bought a bronze, free-ranged turkey costing £££, made a variety of different sides (braised red cabbage, cauliflower cheese) as well as normal roasties, bought lots of booze and lots of nibbles. I could picture everything on the table and everyone tucking in, then we’d all sit around, play some board games and have fun.

Reality: Family turned up late. Ate dinner and then left as they ‘needed a nap’. Promised they would come back - didn’t.

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HappyEverIftar · 05/12/2017 18:52

Expectation: dressing up nicely and having small mouthfuls of delicious snacks and scintillating conversations throughout the day, playing games and catching up with family.

Reality: slobbing in pjs by 2pm on the couch (bed) having eaten too many roast potatoes and making the fatal mistake of downing orange juice in the morning to get round my hangover from the night before, for the medicinal pint of Baileys to curdle with the orange juice in an unholy alliance with aforementioned roast potatoes, bleeurrgh. Merry Christmas!

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Headfullofdreams · 05/12/2017 19:12

Expectation: family gathered, everyone happy and laughing,

What happened: MIL opened her present at the table. Set the wrapping paper on fire from a table candle and my new cookery book which then got thrown out into the snow to put out the fire. I stood in the garden with the baby so we didn't burn to death in all the commotion.

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vickyors · 05/12/2017 20:17

The dog had been really unwell, and was basically sent home to die in peace at home, after a ruptured spleen and massive haemorrhage and various other things. She had lain in the kitchen quietly for two days, drinking a bit of water from her bowl, but not getting up, and we carried her out to try and make her wee.

Middle of Christmas dinner- we all dress up in nice frocks. Christmas pudding came out, all lit on fire, and then we looked over and the dog had gone! All hell broke loose.. where was the dog?!

She had dragged herself into the utility room and done the most enormous wee on the floor, and was lying in it, so embarrassed, poor love. All of us crowding round, dressed up with paper hats on our heads, crying and laughing, at our lovely dog lying in her wee.

She went on to live for 4 more years!

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LondonStill83 · 05/12/2017 22:25

I love reading these- makes me smile (in solidarity of course).

I have memories of so many happy christmases as a child. When I was young, my whole extended family would get together on Christmas Eve. Every year, my grandpa would have to leave to "go to work". Coincidentally, just after he left, my cousins and I would see Rudolph flying through the sky, and lo and behold, Santa would come to visit! It was like magic.

When grandpa would come back we would all gather around him and scream "Grandma you missed him AGAIN".

Fast forward to last year. I am the first cousin to have had a baby.

Expectation: a day full of wonder centred around this beautiful life I had created

reality: later diagnosed dairy intolerant baby screamed for 12-16 hours each day. DH and I screamed at each other in frustration and exhaustion whilst DM and DF sat around helplessly, in the tiny cottage we had hired in the middle of nowhere. Snow rendered us housebound so we all took turns sharing ear plugs and crying quietly in the bath.

Santa Claus didn't come!

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Zomam · 05/12/2017 22:29

Last year I planned to spend the night with my friends after Christmas dinner with my family. The plan was to have a few (or more) drinks and just generally be merry. The reality was that I could barely stay awake past 7 o’clock and had to cancel.
Found out a few days later it was because I was pregnant!

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73kittycat73 · 06/12/2017 02:23

Expectation: A lovely decorated front room, centre piece being the beautiful large Christmas tree.
Reality: Tree got dented somehow in shed all year. Stood up so decorated it only for it to come crashing forward everytime you went near it. Got a emergency replacement from Argos for £12.99. Not as big and beautiful but it'll do for this year. (After Christmas sales, I'm looking at you. Xmas Smile )

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PussCatTheGoldfish · 06/12/2017 05:46

Expectation: enjoying time with the DCs, baking, making decorations etc. DH having time off etc.

Reality: Rushed off my feet, trying to cram it all in. DH and I having to work.

This year is much harder due to unforeseen circumstances.

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frenchknitting · 06/12/2017 07:46

Expectation: romantic christmas dinner with DH at home on our own, the first Christmas after we got married.

Reality: the cooker broke an hour or so into cooking the turkey. When we checked it, it was still raw. So I ended up slicing bits of and cooking a full Xmas dinner on the George foreman grill, while DH had a massive sulk.

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HereBeFuckery · 06/12/2017 09:07

Expectation: everyone opening presents and exclaiming with delight over their thoughtful gifts and thanking one another.
Reality: efficiency dictates that all presents are hurled into a pile beside the recipient, and we all open at once, in about eight seconds, without speaking. It was grim, MIL finds gifts awkward so wants to get it over and done with. I like to luxuriate in presents!

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Thesqueezermustghost · 06/12/2017 10:51

I always hope for snow, lots of laughter, doing things together, people dropping in. My DP talks of 12 days if Christmas, lots of feasting, having fun. Reality, back ache from wrapping presents that take 5 minutes to open, feeling sick and guilty from too much food no visitors, DC on devices as per usual and s huge feeling of let down by Boxing Day longing for 'normality' to resume.

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Alexandra87 · 06/12/2017 12:07

Expectation - family won't fill my house with a load of plastic crap for my kids that they neither want nor need
Reality - we need to build an extension starting Boxing Day

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voyager50 · 06/12/2017 12:07

When I was little I always hoped for lovely presents from my nan but was always disappointed.

My sister and I would always be given things without batteries to operate them or they would be faulty in some way. I remember one year she gave us some inflatable Mr Men chairs - which would have been great if they weren't full of holes so they couldn't blown up - they went straight in the bin !

Looking back as an adult, I now realise she never had much money so always bought things that were cheap as she couldn't afford to spend much.

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ErinSophia · 06/12/2017 12:09

Expectation- me wrapping my daughters presents while they sleep and hiding them until Christmas Eve so 'Santa can deliver them'

Reality- me knee deep in presents trying to wrap them and my 2 year old bursts in and shouts Santa's been so my 4 year old runs in all excited expecting presents there and then.

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Byrdie · 06/12/2017 12:32

I love love love Christmas with all the wrapping and the preparation and the decorating… just love it. However, sometimes the carefully thought out and bought/made presents don’t go down as well as I had thought they would! I’m still reminding my mum and dad about ‘lovely’ or ‘practical’ presents I bought them last uear or the year before which I have never seen them use. (It’s not the kids who are ungrateful!)

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MargoLovebutter · 06/12/2017 13:59

Expectation - everyone has a happy time and there is no stress
Reality - not everyone has a great time and people get stressed

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